The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-04-15

York and tho score OF thousands OF destitute
children of brooklyn around whom are throw
no benign and heavenly and Christian influ
encesl 1t Is tremendous question, what Il
to become Of tho destitute children of thes,
citicss We must either act on them or they
will act on lis. Wo will either Christianiz'
them or they will hcathenize us. 1t Is ques
ton not moro for tho Christian than for the
philanthropist and tho statesman. Oh, II We
could have all these suffering little ones
gathered together, what a scene of hunger
and wretchedness and rags and sin and
trouble and darkness! II we could see those
little feet on the broad road to death, which
through Christian charity ought to be press
ing the narrow path Of life; il we could hear
those voices in blasphemy, which ought to be
singing the praises Of Cod if we could see
those little hearts, which at that ago ought
not to be soiled with one unclean thought, be-
coming the sewers for every abomination; il
we could see those suffering little ones sacri-
feed on the altar Of every iniquitous passion
and baptized with fire from the lava Of the
pit we would recol, crying out: "Avaunt,
thou dream of hell" They are not always
going to be children. They are coming up to be
emen and women of this country. That spark
Of iniquity that might now be put out with
OLC VI Cuo WdUcI VI lIC Will DcCOulc Iuc
| connagration of every green thing that God
ever planted in the soul. That which ought
to have been a temple of the Holy Ghost will
become a Scared and blistered ruin-every
light quenched and every altar in the dust.
That petty thief, who slips into your store
and takes O yard of cloth from your counter,
will become the highwayman of the forest, or
the burglar at midnight, picking the lock of
cofa opI 11pwiy,rr ctr
to hide the villainy. A great army, with
drunken boot, they are coming on-gathering
recruits from every grog shop and den Of
infamy in the land-to take the ballot box
and hurrah at the elections The hard
knuckled fist of ruffianism will have more
power than the gentle hand of intelligence
and sobriety. Men, bloated, and with the
signature Of sin burned in from the top of the
forehead to the bottom Of the chin will look
honest men out of countenance. Moral
corpses, which ought to be buried 100 feet
deep to keep them from poisoning the cir,
will rot in the face of the sun at MONDAY. In
dustry in her plain frock will be unappreci-
ated, while thousands of men will wander
around in idleness, with their hands Oh their
hips, saying: "The world owes us living"
0, what tremendous power there is in in
lquity when uneduca1ed, and unrestrained
and unblanched it goes on concentrating, and
deepening, and widening and gathering mo-
mentum until it swings ahead with very
triumph of desolation drowning like surges,
like flames, crushing like rocks
What are you going to do with this aban-
doned population of the streets? Will you
gather them in your churches. 1t is
not the will Of your Heavenly Father
that one of these little ones should
perish If you have ten respectable
children in your class, gather in ten that are
not respectable If in your Bible class there
be twenty young men who have come from
Christian homes and elegant surroundings,
let those twenty young men go out and
gather in twenty more of the young men Of
The city who are lost to God and lost to So
,iety. This outside population, unless edu-
Gated and restrained, will work terror in ages
that are to come. Years ago ct New Orleans,
when the cholera was raging fearfully, a
steamboat put out just before nightfall
crowded with passengers who were trying to
escape from the pestilence. After the boat
had been out little while the engineer fell
with the cholera. The captain in consterna-
ion went down among the passengers and
asked: "1s there any one here who knows
anything about engineering" A swarthy
nan replied: II am all engineer" "Well,"
aid the captain, ~ would be very glad if
you would take charge of this boat" The
nan went to the engine The steamer moved
more rapidly until after while the captain
md some passengers were alarmed and they
vent to see what was the matter, and they
ound that this was a maniac engineer and that
lie was seated on the safety valve; and as they
anne to him, he said ~ am commissioned of
atan to drive this steamer to HE'LL" and he
lourished his pistol, and would not come
lown. But after while, through some
tratagem, he was brought from his position,
md the lives of the passengers were saved.
)h. my friends, that steamer had no such
,eril as our institutions are threatened with,
the ignorant and unrestrained children of
his land shall come up in their ignorance and
heir crime to engineer our civil and religious
Institutions, and drive them on the rocks
Educate this abandoned population, or they
will overthrow the institutions of this land
father them into your Sabbath schools /
congratulate you that many have been gath
red. Go forth, teachers, in the name of the
ord Jesus Christ, and on the coming Sab
aths may there be found gathered scores
nd hundreds of these wanderers, and instead $
f 1900 in the Sabbath school, we shall see
900 OF 1900, and the grace of God will come G
own upon them, and the Holy Spirit will L
ring them all into the truth. y
Another characteristic of live church is {
ne with appropriate architecture In the t
ar west and amid destitute population log a
hurch is very appropriate-the people living
4 log houses. But in communities where l
eople live in comfortable abodes, church
or lacking in beauty is +
loral nuisance. Because Christ was born in v
manger is no reason why we should wor- q
nip him in a barn. Let the churches of il
esus Christ be not only comfortable, but G
rnate. Years ago we resolved to have t,
omfortable church. We resolved that it y
lould be amphitheatrical in shape. The Il
rominent architects Of the country, after "
CURING on the matter good while, said that Il
lch a church would not be churchly, and Fl
ley would have nothing to do with the en- Il
rprise. But after a while we found all h
rchitect willing to risk his reputation. He 81
ut up for us the first tabernacle, in amphi- n
,eatrical style. We liked it. All who came 81
xed it. This building followed in the same CT
yle. We believe it is appropriate and Al
lapted. An angular church will have an 8,